Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s relentless attacks on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was a hit at Pakatan Rakyat's ceramah yesterday.

 

Even though not physically present, Mahathir was a hot topic at the ceramah in Taman Medan last night as Pakatan leaders used his name to lend credence to their arguments.

 

Speaking to an audience of some 100 people, PKR's Batu Caves assemblyperson Amirudin Shaari ( left ) said BN is desperately clinging on to the power it realises it might soon lose.

 

"This is not (just) what I am saying, even Mahathir said that BN will lose," he said.

 

Amirudin also boasted that Mahathir was following in Pakatan's footsteps in raising the case of the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.

 

"Only now Mahathir wants to ask who murdered Altantuya... in our ceramah sessions, we have raised it since three years ago.

 

"What was the motive of (police commandos) Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri in murdering Altantuya?

 

"Najib never responded, he only claimed not to know Altantuya," Amirudin said.

 

Mahathir has been on a campaign to oust Najib as prime minister, citing several alleged failures by Najib, among these the massive RM42 billion debt by 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

 

Sdn Bhd? That’s NFC

 

Also present at the ceramah was Nurul Ilham Anwar, who made an impassioned plea for her jailed father Anwar Ibrahim.

 

Nurul Ilham also lambasted Umno Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil for describing the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat as a "Sdn Bhd" (sendirian berhad, private limited company) of Anwar's family.

 

"I want to tell Shahrizat that this is not a ‘Sdn Bhd’, unlike her National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), which is a Sdn Bhd.

 

"Taking hundreds of millions from the rakyat, giving it to family members to purchase condominiums overseas. What is that, if it is not ‘Sdn Bhd’?" Nurul Ilham said.

 

She was referring to the criminal breach of trust charges Shahrizat's husband is facing over the RM250 million government loan to NFC, which is owned by her family.

 

Nurul Ilham also lamented that Anwar's grandchildren must now experience the same horror she and her siblings had to face when the former deputy prime minister was jailed in 1999.

 

The ceramah last night was part of a bid to build a momentum for the protest against the goods and services tax (GST) in Kuala Lumpur, which is scheduled for May 1.